Heartland Institute/International Conference on Climate Change (2008)

The Heartland Institute's 2008 International Conference on Climate Change was a conference held at the Marriott New York Marquis Times Square Hotel in New York between March 2-4. The conference was organised and "sponsored" by the Heartland Institute, a U.S. think tanks that in preceding years received substantial funding from Exxon for its work downplaying the significance of global warming.

(For a separate article on the 2009 conference see Heartland Institute/International Conference on Climate Change (2009)).

Conference for Skeptics
The conference was described by Washington Post reporter, Juliet Eilperin, as "a sort of global warming doppelganger conference, where everything was reversed." At the event, skeptics unveiled their response to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) report, edited by corporate-funded skeptic Fred Singer, argued that "recent climate change stems from natural causes." Eilperin notes that "while the IPCC enlisted several hundred scientists from more than 100 countries to work over five years to produce its series of reports, the NIPCC document is the work of 23 authors from 15 nations, some of them not scientists."

The New York Times reports that while the Heartland conference "was largely framed around science ... when an organizer made an announcement asking all of the scientists in the large hall to move to the front for a group picture, 19 men did so." The conference invitation identified its goal as "to generate international media attention to the fact that many scientists believe forecasts of rapid warming and catastrophic events are not supported by sound science."

The Heartland Institute offered "$1,000 to those willing to give a talk," and "a free weekend at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan, including travel costs, to all elected officials wanting to attend," according to the RealClimate blog.

Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change
The conference resulted in the grandly titled communiqué 'The Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change'. A scientifically illiterate document largely containing opinion masquerading as fact. It disputes the greenhouse effect of CO2, and disputes the consensus of scientists on climate change. It also claims "That human-caused climate change is not a global crisis." A position which should lead an enquiring mind to ask whether the Heartland Institute is ready to accept a naturally occurring global crisis exists. The document also boldly states "That adaptation as needed is massively more cost-effective than any attempted mitigation and that a focus on such mitigation will divert the attention and resources of governments away from addressing the real problems of their peoples." The promoting of adaptation over mitigation is not surprising although it should be noted no supporting evidence is offered and it is in stark contrast to the Stern Report which holds the opposite view and contains a great deal of evidence to support it.

Speakers at the Conference

 * Joseph L. Bast, President, The Heartland Institute; "Conference Host"
 * David Archibald, Australian oil explorer and
 * Scott Armstrong, professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania,
 * Dennis Avery, a fellow at the Hudson Institute
 * Timothy Ball,Chairman and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP)
 * Robert Balling
 * E. Calvin Beisner
 * David Bellamy
 * Bob Carter
 * Donald J. Boudreaux
 * Sandy Liddy Bourne
 * Robert L. Bradley Jr.
 * William M. Briggs
 * H. Sterling Burnett,
 * John A. Charles, Jr., President and CEO of Cascade Policy Institute
 * Paul Chesser, director of Climate Strategies Watch, a project of the John Locke Foundation.
 * John Coleman,
 * Ralph Conner, local legislation manager for the Heartland Institute
 * Roy Cordato, vice president for research and resident scholar at the John Locke Foundation
 * Richard S. Courtney, a founding member of European Science and Environment Forum
 * Joseph D’Aleo,
 * David H. Douglass,
 * Paul Driessen, a senior fellow with the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
 * John Dale Dunn,
 * Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute
 * Michael J. Economides
 * Michael R. Fox,
 * Dan Gainor, is the the T. Boone Pickens Fellow and vice president of the Business & Media Institute, a project of the by the conservative media watchdog group, the Media Research Center
 * Fred Goldberg
 * Stanley B. Goldenberg,
 * Robert Gordon, president of Responsible Resources
 * Vince Gray
 * William M. Gray
 * Kenneth P. Green, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
 * Tom Harris, executive director of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project and the International Climate Science Coalition
 * Howard Hayden,
 * David Henderson
 * Donald Hertzmark
 * Art Horn
 * Christopher C. Horner
 * Craig D. Idso
 * Andrei Illarionov, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute
 * Roy Innis, national chairman and chief executive officer of the Congress of Racial Equality
 * Yuri A. Izrael
 * Zbigniew Jaworowski
 * Jim Johnston, Heartland Institute
 * Madhav Khandekar
 * Václav Klaus
 * David Legates,
 * Jay H. Lehr, senior fellow and science director of the Heartland Institute
 * Marlo Lewis Jr., senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute
 * Craig Loehle,
 * Leon Louw, executive director of the Free Market Foundation, South Africa
 * Howard Maccabee,
 * Ken Malloy
 * Jim Martin, president of the 60 Plus Association
 * Phelim McAleer,
 * Ann McElhinney,
 * Ross McKitrick
 * Owen McShane, chairman of the policy panel of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition and director of the Centre for Resource Management Studies
 * Patrick Michaels, senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute.
 * Fred Michel,
 * Steven J. Milloy
 * Ferenc Miskolczi
 * Barun S. Mitra, founder and director of the Liberty Institute
 * Lord Christopher Monckton
 * Marc Morano
 * Julian Morris, executive director of International Policy Network
 * Robert P. Murphy, an economist with the Institute for Energy Research
 * Iain Murray, senior fellow in energy, science and technology at the Competitive Enterprise Institute
 * Todd Myers, environmental director at the Washington Policy Center
 * James J. O'Brien,
 * Kendra Okonski, International Policy Network
 * Jim Ott
 * Tim Patterson
 * Benny Peiser
 * Andreas Prokoph
 * Richard W. Rahn, chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth and the Advisory Board of the European Center for Economic Growth
 * Paul Reiter,
 * Ronald J. Rychlak,
 * David W. Schnare is the senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy
 * Joel Schwartz, visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
 * Tom Segalstad,
 * Frederick Seitz, director emeritus of the Atlantic Legal Foundation
 * Russell Seitz,
 * Daniel R. Simmons, director of the Natural Resources Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council
 * S. Fred Singer, president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project
 * Tim Slagle,
 * Willie Soon, chief science adviser at the Science and Public Policy Institute
 * Douglas Southgate
 * Roy W. Spencer,
 * John Stossel,
 * Thomas Tanton is fellow in environmental studies at the Pacific Research Institute and an adjunct scholar at the Institute for Energy Research
 * George H. Taylor
 * James M. Taylor, managing editor of Environment & Climate News, a Heartland Institute newsletter
 * Mitch Taylor
 * David G. Tuerck
 * Paul Waggoner,
 * Anthony Watts
 * Gerd-Rainer Weber,
 * Miklos Zagoni

Co-Sponsors

 * Alternate Solutions Institute, Pakistan
 * Americans for Prosperity, United States
 * Americans for Tax Reform, United States
 * Asociacion de Consumidores Libres, Costa Rica
 * Association for Liberal Thinking, Turkey
 * Business & Media Institute, United States
 * Carbon Sense Coalition, Australia
 * Cascade Policy Institute, United States
 * Cathay Institute for Public Affairs, China
 * Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, United States
 * Center for the Dissemination of Economic Knowledge, Venezuela
 * Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, United States
 * Center of the American Experiment, United States
 * Centro de Innovación y Desarrollo Humano, Uruguay
 * Centro de Investigaciones de Instituciones y Mercados de Argentina, Argentina
 * Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy, United States
 * Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, United States
 * Competitive Enterprise Institute, United States
 * Congress of Racial Equality, United States
 * Discovery Institute, United States
 * Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, United States
 * Economic Thinking, United States
 * European Center for Economic Growth, United Kingdom
 * Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, United States
 * Free Enterprise Action Fund, United States
 * Free Market Foundation, South Africa
 * Frontiers of Freedom Institute, United States
 * Fundacion Atlas 1853, Argentina
 * Hayek Institute, Austria
 * Idea Channel, United States
 * The Independent Institute, United States
 * Institute of Public Affairs, Australia
 * Institut für Unternehmerische Freiheit, Germany
 * Instituto de Libre Empresa, Peru
 * Instituto Liberdade, Brazil
 * International Climate Science Coalition, Canada - Australia - New Zealand
 * International Policy Network, United Kingdom
 * Istituto Bruno Leoni, Italy
 * JunkScience.com, United States
 * Liberty Institute, India
 * Lion Rock Institute, Hong Kong
 * John Locke Foundation, United States
 * George C. Marshall Institute, United States
 * Minimal Government Institute, Philippines
 * National Center for Policy Analysis, United States
 * New Zealand Business Roundtable, New Zealand
 * Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, United States
 * Pacific Research Institute, United States
 * Property and Environment Research Center, United States
 * Science and Environmental Policy Project, United States
 * Science and Public Policy Institute, United States
 * Sovereignty International, United States

Conference Website
Website: http://www.heartland.org/NewYork08/newyork08.cfm

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Climate Change
 * Heartland Institute/International Conference on Climate Change (2009)
 * Researching global warming skeptics
 * SourceWatch:Project:Creating Articles on Sponsors and Speakers at The 2008 International Conference on Climate Change
 * think tanks

External Articles

 * Bill Berkowitz, "Global warming 'skeptics' conference enabled by conservative philanthropy", Media Transparency, March 5, 2008.